Community Standard
We are about to apply for renweal at Community Standard level as we now have an Open Age section and a Girls section, allowing us to be far more pro-active within the community.

The award analyses the Clubs structures and in particular makes sure the club has a robust structure to support the following;

Volunteer Training
(We have 75 Qualified Coaches to at least FA Level 1 in the Club, all paid for by the Club)

Qualified First Aiders (numbers as above)

Qualified Child Protection Officers (numbers as above)

Code of Conduct and Behaviour, both on and off the pitch for ALL involved with the Club.

This covers Players, Parents, Family Members, Supporters, Friends, Coaches and Assistants and Club Officials.

Effectively, everyone in the Club is under constant scrutiny.

The award allows Parents to feel confident when bringing their child to us as a Club that we do things the ‘Right Way’.

Positive not Negative
Encourage not Discourage
Participation and Enjoyment not just about winning
Supportive not Destructive
And most of all, letting children play because they want to, not so parents can live their dreams through their children.

Remember the most important point...

Children don't make mistakes on purpose, so don't traet them like they do - remember Positive not Negative!

This code covers all attitudinal and behavioural issues both on and off the pitch.

This has particular relevance at Junior Football because it is regularly the behaviour of people on the touchline that causes problems, so this is scrutinised very closely by the FA, reviewed by unannounced observation, and has to be formally re-applied for every 3 years, and can be withdrawn if Clubs are found to be in breach of the principles to which the award is there to support.

It is awarded once the Club has been through a rigorous assessment conducted independently, involving a whole host of methods, one of which is anonymous, unannounced observation of the Club.

Governing Body links
We run on an Annual basis a tournament in the borough, which is endorsed, from the Regional and National FA.
This tournament has some 200 plus teams involved over a 2 day period and is one of the strongest in the North West, with over 2000 participants and some 5000 plus supporters, and is known by professional clubs to be an ideal event to observe and potentially give youngsters a chance at being selected for Academy membership, thus giving them an opportunity into the Professional game - we also co-host FA Coaching awards, in conjunction with the LFA at our site.

Youth Policy
(23 teams in season 2008/9, Under 6’s to Under 16’s and Girls Under 13’s with plans to encourage new Girls teams at Under 10's and Under 12's from season 2009/10).

We are a stand-alone youth club with links to open age and girls football.

School Links
We are a formal partner to Bamford Primary School, who we assisted in securing the Schools Chartermark award.

We are now an established Club/Schools link organisation providing coaching to youngsters from every linked school via the FA’s 3 Lions project.

We have recently undertaken girls’ development with all local schools and colleges in RMBC.
 
We host the Rochdale Schools Cup Finals on an annual basis at our site in Bamford and have forged links with the school sports set up in the borough with particular regard to Falinge and Oulder Hill Schools along with their linked Junior and Primary Schools.

We also advertise our free community based summer coaching run at our home site, which is not restricted to a couple of weeks, but runs from May to August in all the schools in the Borough which allows all interested to come along and receive coaching from FA qualified coaches at no cost.

These Coaches are part of our club set up and are fully qualified in Football Coaching, Child Protection and 1st Aid. (The club pays for this qualification to be undertaken by its volunteers, and it is a requirement of their being responsible for the work they do with children).

Community Links
We host Open-age Cup competitions, Knock-Out matches, League Inter-League games and League Cup Deciders on our site.

We also host Football festivals for Bolton Wanderers Academy, to whom our club is a ‘feeder’ set up.
This has been formally established with Bolton and is now an avenue for our youngsters to receive Premiership Coaching from within the Bolton academy on an ongoing basis.

We also co-host FA Coaching awards in conjunction with the LFA at our site at our home site of Top O’ Th’ Lane, Bamford.

Club Volunteer Value awards
Each year we award a Club Person of the year in addition to player awards, this goes to the person who in the view of the committee has undertaken a significant amount of work as a volunteer and deserves in the clubs view recognition for this voluntary work.

Club Investment Programme
All volunteers have their required qualifications paid for from club funds and also have a development plan to allow for extension to other areas, Coaching and Refereeing being the main 2 avenues.
We now have a number of ex players who themselves are quite young, some still in their teens some in their early 20’s who now coach, train and referee our players on an ongoing basis.

We hope all above helps you when choosing Bridge Colts JFC

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